Last year Kelela Mizanekristos waded her way through a breakup by chopping it up and turning it into music. The LA-based singer stitched together 13 tracks that became Cut 4 Me, her debut mixtape released on LA label Fade to Mind. Vulnerable and honest, it features Kelela's earnest vocals buoyed by producers from her label's roster as well as its UK counterpart Night Slugs, figures who have been important in carving out the recent sound of underground dance floors around the world. The balance leaves Kelela in a wonderfully open space where she toys with the familiarity of R&B while bending it in a new direction.

Deep in the creation process of her first album, Kelela stepped out of the studio to talk about aims for her debut LP, innovation in music, and what it's like to count Solange as a fan.

Your sound has a familiarity, but mixed with something totally unique. Tell us about this.

At the end of the day I would like to have the farthest reach in terms of being able to communicate to as many people as possible. So it's not that I enjoy being obscure; it's that I sonically don't want to be situated here or there. I want to speak in the tradition of rhythm and blues and soul music, but also push how it's dressed and how it's delivered to the audience. And hopefully that gets embraced by as many people as possible, but the goal isn't necessarily to speak to everyone. The goal is to get it out as exact as it is in my head.

I would say there is a zone of R&B that hadn't been quite innovative. When I say "pushing" I mean innovating, I guess. Sounds that people are using when they make the tracks that are resonant, but are somehow pushing or challenging, or are innovating somehow. Innovating something that is familiar. That's the general approach, and that's what I want to do with the melody as well. It should ring true—you should like every melody sequence without knowing what's happening next.

What was the vision for Cut 4 Me?

The vision for the mixtape was a vocal project that made sure to be in the tradition of strong R&B vocal work, and that was paired with really challenging and fully gratifying production, and for the two to be synergized as one thing. You should be able to take all the songs to a piano, and, you would still love the song. That was the goal.

Solange selected two of your tracks for inclusion on her Saint Heron compilation. Her whole thing is aimed at pushing a new wave of R&B; what does she appreciate about your sound?

When she heard the mixtape—she was listening to it for the compilation—she was like, "Do you know how many people are gonna wanna jump you for making 'Go All Night' so short?" and I was like [laughs] "Yeah, that's kinda like the whole point." And she was like "I totally get it," so she's given me really warm affirmations and love for the songs on the record. She's given me a lot of encouragement. I mean the gesture of wanting me to have two songs from my mixtape on the compilation I think is huge for me.

Sounds like the next step is to just build on the momentum of the mixtape.

I'm really excited about that, because you can hear on the mixtape for the most part I'm coming up with ideas over a really beautiful and interesting loop. Sort of giving you the idea and leaving it alone. I didn't take every song to be the most epic version of the song that it could be. It was more demonstrating each song, what I hear over it, and keeping it short and sweet and pretty minimal. That was the vibe, and I think that that is something that really works on that record. I would like to tap into that for the album.